More legal news. From the Irish Courts this time. “Good republican” Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy has been remanded on continuing bail until the end of May pending the outcome of another legal challenge to his trial in the Special Criminal Court on nine charges of failing to “furnish a return of his income, profits or gains to the Collector General or the Inspector of Taxes for the years 1996/97 to 2004.” The last reports on the case, in November last year, …
Former Workers’ Party president, and the party’s current national treasurer, Sean Garland has been remanded in custody for a further day at a bail hearing today. He’s being held on foot of an extradiction warrant from the US government on counterfeiting charges. Further background here. From the iol report The 74-year-old, who previously skipped bail from the North, said it would be “suicide” if he did the same again from Ireland as he is being treated for two types of …
With a number of investigations continuing into Anglo Irish Bank all sorts of information is tumbling out into the public domain. The latest is an RTÉ report of confirmation from Irish Life & Permanent that it provided “exceptional support” to the bank during September 2008. From the RTÉ report The statement follows an earlier revelation [added link] that Government appointed directors in Anglo Irish Bank are investigating a deposit of billions of euro by Irish Life & Permanent in the …
Apparently.. At least according to the RTÉ report. For their part Conroy Diamonds and Gold say that the samples taken at the Clay Lake target [pdf file] in County Armagh contain “average gold-in-soil values [] twice the average of those recorded at Clontibret.” The press release states – “More than 80 soil samples were collected at Clay Lake, returning average gold-in-soil values of over 50ppb, with six greater than 100ppb and a highest value of 1,531ppb”. That’s parts per billion …
Conor Ryan has an interesting observation on current problems in the Republic. This, he believes, is the kind of mess the UK would have found itself in if the Tories had continued with the economic policy they were espousing pre Lehman brothers (the detailed picture of the Opposition’s economic policies are much dimmer these days). That is to load indirect taxation whilst keeping direct and corporation taxation as low as you can get away with. Conor’s point: large and rapidly …
Former Irish Workers’ Party president Sean Garland was remanded in custody for another week today, on foot of an extradition warrant by the US authorities for alleged counterfeiting charges, when his solicitor told the court he was not ready to make a bail application. [Having difficulty finding someone to provide sureties on his behalf? – Ed] Adds The RTÉ report provides another snippet of info Sean Garland was elected as President of The Workers’ Party in 2006. He retired from …
When BBC NI Dublin correspondent Shane Harrison appeared on Stormont Live today, the Irish government talks with those unelected social partners had broken down but the statement to the Dáil by Taoiseach Brian Cowen had yet to be made. RTÉ reports on the details of that statement. And here’s Shane Harrison on the problems ahead for the Irish government this year, and next.. Pete Baker
The Belfast Telegraph reports a complaint, by Donegal Fine Gael TD Joe McHugh, of “unusual patterns of dole claimants” in certain towns. Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin confirmed the problem was so serious it had been raised at a formal meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council by her SDLP counterpart Margaret Ritchie. The minister also noted that this activity “wasn’t confined to Donegal but was a feature of all border counties”. She also said: “We were always conscious …
I suspect the shareholders concerned may have to wait until the Irish Financial Regulator and the Director of Corporate Enforcement decide on whether any illegalities occurred before they’ll be able to proceed.. But since the Regulator and the Irish Finance Minister knew at least part of what was going on at the bank at the time.. ANYhoo.. RTÉ tells us that two firms of solicitors are talking separately to shareholders in now nationalised Anglo Irish Bank [Including Sean Quinn? – …
If you’d been wondering what was happening in the long running saga of the counterfeit US super-dollars, North Korea, and the former Irish Workers’ Party president Sean Garland [you were? – Ed], I have news.. There had been a report of that the US intended to request the extradition, in March 2006, after he had jumped bail on extradiction proceedings in Belfast – briefly turning up at an Irish Labour Party conference in Dublin. The original indictment dates back to …
Here’s a handy thing for the upcoming council and European elections in the Republic… John at Irish Election has blogged the constituency profiles put out by the Oireachtas… it’s pretty basic stuff and not a patch on the detailed profiles put out by Sammy Morse for the 97 Assembly elections… Here’s his South Antrim profiling for instance… But it’s a start… The Limerick Blogger how both their constituencies are polar opposites in comparison to one another… For Donegal North East …
It looks like there could be a whole new story to tell about Sean Quinn and his stake in the now nationalised Anglo Irish Bank. The Irish Times reports that it understands the Irish Financial Regulator intervened last year when they discovered the Quinn family “had built up a stake [in Anglo Irish] of 25 per cent by way of contracts for difference” – a stake that, legally, they didn’t need to declare. The 15% stake they did eventually declare …
Today the Northern Ireland Assembly was due to debate a motion calling on the NI Agriculture Minister, Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew, “as a matter of urgency to ensure that animal welfare standards are at least equivalent to those in the rest of the United Kingdom.” – there’s also an amendment selected to add at the end “and the Republic of Ireland”. In England and Wales the relevant legislation was apparently brought up-to-date in 2007, but, according to the USPCA, “changes …
The sound of bolts being slammed shut after the exit of prize race was audible with the news that the Oireachtas Enterprise committee is investigate the impact of cross border shopping on the Republic… But Caroline Byrne of ShelfLIfe trade magazine is adamant that the problems were obvious long before the Minister of Finance delivered the news of the growing hole in the government budget; “This report finds that operating costs are up to 30% higher, for a comparable retail …
In the Sunday Business Post, as the discussion on the Irish economy continues, David McWilliams has another look at the history of economic recoveries. In the light of our own banking travails, much has been made of Sweden and Finland’s bank recapitalisation and recovery plan. What most of this discussion fails to mention is that the devaluation and subsequent printing of money by both central banks did the trick. Is it worth considering here? Surely not; it might mean replacing …
As the UK joins Ireland in an official recession via the Guardian’s politics blog comes this fascinating snippet of information about that ‘official’ definition from Peter Jay, former UK ambassador in Washington, former BBC Economics editor, and current non-executive director at the Bank of England’s Court of Directors. Paul Waugh was, fortunately, listening to the Radio 4 interview. “Art had the neat idea that if we had a definition of recession which meant that people could say we are not …
I’m not quite sure what’s been going on at the excellent new Irish Economy blog since the thread concerned has been wiped. But Gerard and John think there is some very suspicious about it… According to one commenter on John’s blog, the piece itself appears to have consisted of little more than linking to Morgan ‘briomhar’ dumping on the Irish Government’s plans for the Anglo Irish Bank. Gerard suspects foul play from inside an institution, “the incident strikes at the …
Last week’s podcast has comfortably passed the 200 download mark. That’s thanks mostly to a little bit of buzz around the Irish blogosphere. For which, thanks to John, the Irish Left Review, Stephen, and Gerard did their bit to spread the word… If you enjoyed the last chat tune in again tomorrow at 11.30… And spread the word… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider …
The International Representative for West Belfast has been sketching out the details of his future world tour global campaign for a united Ireland, no dates or locations yet – “Sinn Féin will be inviting Irish-America to discuss with us how we can advance a united Ireland campaign . . . Our intention is to engage with the diaspora and seek to marshal its political strength.” [Adds Cuckoo, cuckoo..]. Meanwhile, in the Belfast Telegraph, Eamonn McCann offers a timely corrective to …
It’s very hard these days to hear the word ‘plasterer’ and not put the words ‘Paddy’ and ‘the’ in front of them. Of course Paddy Reilly was so much more than a plasterer. Not one was he one of the Manchester lads who provided the then Minister of Finance a dig out, but he also became Director of Elections for Ahern’s Dublin Central constituency. Morgan Kelly, whose gloomy presentation recently wowed economists today spells out in no uncertain terms what …
